Policy of safety for teachers facing classroom risks In France, teachers seek insurance

ADAM SAGE Paris, Sept. 14

They have to suffer physical violence and verbal abuse. They end up bruised, battered and often depressed. So it is little wonder that France's beleaguered teaching staff should want to take out insurance against their pupils. More than half of all teachers have subscribed to a policy that guarantees them a lawyer if they should be sued, a doctor if they are injured and a psychologist if they suffer a nervous breakdown. The trend underlines a collapse of classroom discipline amid a move towards the assertion of individual rights in a society that used to swear by collective values. An anguished debate was fuelled by reports of two new attacks in schools this week. In Poitiers, central France, a female geography teacher was slapped and kicked by the mother of a secondary school pupil on Wednesday after she complained that the boy had not done his homework. A day earlier, a religious education teacher at a college in Bordeaux was punched by an 18-year-old pupil of Moroccan origin who objected to his lesson on the place of Islam in Morocco's political system. Education minister Vincent Peillon called the attacks unacceptable. I firmly condemn all past and future aggressions, he said, in a tacit admission that teachers remained in danger. Teaching staff appear only too aware of that fact, since 55 per cent pay 40 euros (nearly Rs 2,900) a year to insure themselves against the risks that come from pupils. The policy was launched in 2008 jointly by the Maif, a mutual insurer, and the Autonomous Federation of Secular Solidarity, an association of teachers. Roger Crucq, the federation's director, said classroom violence was nothing new in France. He added: What is new is the way pupils and their parents believe they can insult teachers. If they don't like a disciplinary measure, they will scratch the teacher's car, for instance.

When pupils were summoned by staff with a view to suspending them, they regularly arrived with a lawyer. Olivia Millioz, the creator of a website, La Souffrance des Profs (Teachers' Suffering), where teachers recount their woes, said that staff in turn sought legal advice when trying to discipline unruly pupils. They know they can have pupils with a lawyer facing them, so they want to protect themselves. THE TIMES, LONDON ***************----------------------------***************

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| Saturday , September 15 , 2012 |

Death after 300 sit-ups in class - Teen with rod in leg pays with life for talking
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT Hyderabad, Sept. 14: A Hyderabad schoolboy died after being allegedly forced to do 300 sit-ups for chatting with classmates, with the teacher unrelenting even after the 14-year-old pleaded that he had a rod implanted in his leg.

Ismail Hussain died yesterday at a city hospital, nine days after the Class X student came home from the ordeal at school and collapsed. Hours after word about the death spread, a mob descended on the private school and damaged some of the furniture demanding action. Mubin, the math teacher accused of having meted out the punishment, has been suspended, the authorities at Royal Embassy High School at

Madannapet, located in Hyderabads old city, said. Police said a case of rash and negligent act leading to death under the IPC has been started but the teacher is yet to be arrested.

My son was made to do 300 sit-ups for being negligent in lessons and chatting while the class was on, said realtor Mohammed Siddique Hussain, the boys father. Mubin initially asked Ismail not to talk in class but the warning went unheeded, the police said, after which the teacher asked the teenager to do the sit-ups. The family termed the punishment inhuman and alleged that the teacher did not show mercy despite being told by the boy about the condition of his limbs. The rod was inserted in his leg after a fracture sustained in an accident a few years ago while on a holiday in Dubai. When he came back home and fainted after the incident on September 4, Ismail was rushed to a nursing home nearby and from there to two hospitals over the past week, said K.N. Surya Prakash, inspector in charge of Madannapet police station where the case has been registered. We took him to Harmain Hospital at Falaknuma. When his condition did not improve there, we shifted him to Deccan College of Medical Sciences near Charminar, and later to Princess Durru Shehvar Hospital where he died yesterday, said Ismails mother Meherulnisa. It is clear my boy died because of the inhuman punishment. The police should take stern action against the teacher, father Ismail said, breaking down as he spoke to reporters at the police station yesterday. A large crowd, including students of the school and their parents, took part in Ismails funeral procession today, as did representatives of the school. The police, having struggled to contain the rampage at the school yesterday, beefed up security today to ensure the funeral was trouble-free. ***********************------------------------------------***********************